St. Pete's

The southern tip of the peninsula on the Gulf side of Tampa Bay is the St.Petersburg area .... so the dogs and I went exploring to see how far south we could go (St.Pete's Beach is over there).  It reminds me of the keys, because you travel from island to island in DeSoto State Park. It is huge and beautiful with aquamarine water and white sand beaches almost all around you.  At the very tip is the ruins of old Fort DeSoto.  Then you could get on a ferry and go further .... but I didn't.

I have located two warm water springs/river locations to see Manatees really clearly; so Vera and I will probably do that tomorrow.  Charlie is gone for a few days to take one of her dogs back to the friend she got her from.  So now there will only be three dogs.... we can already see improvement in behavior of "the pack".

We are camped at a very large place in Seffner, Florida that is supposedly the nation's largest RV dealer/service/campground. (they even have a Cracker Barrel and a doggie daycare on site).  We were told they have about 1200 RV's on site in sales inventory, about 80-100 in service/repairs at any one time, and 300 campsites.  It's a big place; and nice.  Believe it or not, they serve FREE breakfast and lunch to all campers and all people there for service. (well, 'free' is a relative word, but anyway.... ).  Also they deliver a local newspaper to your "front porch" every morning.

There is a large detention pond within sight of our spot, and this morning I was rather shocked to see a pair of whooping cranes wandering around in it.  Of course, here I am in Florida in the winter (birding paradise)..... but sometimes I think I've been so preoccupied with the alligators that I've neglected my birding.  Not really, the last campsite we had on Lake Okeechobee had four or five purple galinules in the canal behind the camper (along with the alligators).
But you know after being here in Florida for almost exactly two months now...... I am really starting to LIKE it.
But, after a brief stop in Houston/Galveston, we'll be off for "the Northwest". I could get used to this lifestyle!

Later, Marilyn for the Three Travelers

picking strawberries

We are in the Tampa area, very near Plant City (as in the Strawberry capital of the world).  Strawberries are at their very peak now and will be for another couple of weeks.  We see hundreds of day laborers picking berries in seemingly hundreds of fields along the roads and freeways; and we have eaten our share already.  But today Vera decided she wanted hand picked (you pick your own), so we went in search of a "U-pick" sign by the road.
Well, I got some good pictures of Charlie and Vera pickin' berries ...... they each picked two quarts .... and that was enough of the hand pickin'.  But they said they couldn't pass up the opportunity; and they were only fifty cents a quart with almost no waste.
Interesting, and sad, part of the story is we were told that all those laborers are paid only $1.50 per flat, which is eight quarts I think.   Really back breaking work for probably less than minimum wage.
Later, Marilyn

back to Tampa

We'll be here a week, having some warranty work done on Mama Mia; also, Vera is attending a luncheon with several of her nursing school buds who live in this area (they have to 'plan the cruise' for their upcoming class reunion)...... good excuse I guess .... it will be in Clearwater overlooking the Gulf.

We drove up today from Lake Okeechobee.... I had really grown attached to her.  The country changed very quickly from wetland/swamplands/palm trees and alligators, to cattle range land.  Lots of cattle, and the most amazing thing ... orange groves planted on rolling hill country. Didn't know there were any hills here.

We are treating the dogs to a 'spa day' tomorrow (baths at Petsmart) while we go to St.Petersburg to play tourist.  I'll let you know what we find.

Later,
Marilyn for the Three Travelers

Manatees in Naples, FL.

They are really interesting, almost as big as an elephant, gentle, eat only sea grasses, and area always searching for a warm spot (they don't survive in cold water).  Also saw a family of dolphins chasing a school of fish ..... and we saw MANY alligators alongside the freeway that cuts thru the middle of the everglades.
It's called alligator alley... for good reason.  The everglades is a vast sea of grasses growing in water, so to build the freeway they dredged a canal on each side and piled the dirt up for the roadway.  So at the edge of the canal, along the edge of the grasses, are MANY alligators (trust me), for MANY miles .... and more miles.
So, because they have cut the everglades in two, every 500 feet they provided a large culvert so the wildlife can go from one side to the other. On one roadway we even saw blinking signs that said "Warning, Panther crossing next five miles".   Inhospitable is the word.  Don't have a flat tire.... I doubt Triple A would come.

I have been watercoloring fast and furious to catch up with my Florida pictures, since we will be leaving for Houston in a couple of weeks.  We've been here so long we almost feel like a local.

Later, Marilyn

a mountain of sugar

We visited an orange processing plant, and a sugar cane mill and refinery.  They are both really BIG operations ... quite interesting! 
The orange juice is stored in huge tanks kinda remind me of our oil storage tanks only taller and smaller around.  Then it is shipped out in tanker trucks to the different brand companies who package it with their own labels .... same juice.  Except one tidbit of information to watch out for: some companies mix juice from Brazil and other countries with the florida (or USA) juices; and those other countries do not have the same cleanliness standards we have (so they are cheaper) .... but it will tell you on the carton where the juices come from.
The sugar is "milled" into raw sugar crystals and stored in bulk form in HUGE warehouses, until an order is received from a company. Then the raw sugar is refined into the white stuff we know ... or brown sugar by adding molasses to it ...and shipped in bulk to the companies who will package it under their own brand (same stuff for all of it).  No kidding, our tour bus drove thru a warehouse that was 400 feet wide and 1170 feet long and the sugar was just piled to the ceiling almost ... just loose ... I mean we were driving right over it!   All I could think about was in a hurricane it sure would sweeten a lot of ocean!
Wish I could figure out how to get photos loaded into this blog!!

Later, Marilyn for the Three Travelers

Follow that truck !

We have been increasingly annoyed not to be able to purchase any of the vegetables we see being grown and harvested in the fields.  Oh, there are a few produce stands but aside from wonderful tomatoes, everything looks pretty pitiful.  In the local (one) grocery store the green beans were more like the second or third rejects, and the corn on the cob does not look as good as in the supermarkets in Houston!
So, we have concluded that ALL of these vast quantities of green beans and corn are being shipped to Houston and other points ... but are not to be consumed locally.   Now, we are talking "small" community here .... as in not many people .... but LOTS of green beans.  But not for us.  We see big 18 wheeler trucks go by with hundreds of crates of corn on the cob; and we jokingly say "follow that truck".

 So..... this morning, on our way to a day long adventure over to Jupiter Lighthouse, we stopped at a traffic light at the edge of town ... and a pickup truck FULL (I mean with side boards on it and piled way high) of ears of corn turned in front of us!   Now, I figure following a small pickup truck is way more realistic than following a tractor-trailer to some far off unknown place ..... so I followed him.

Well, he turned off the main road into a residential area; made about three turns. By this time Vera is saying "he knows we're following him"; and I'm thinking we're going to end up in his driveway .... which we did.
I bought two dozen ears of fresh from the field corn. We wondered what he was going to do with that load of corn, why he was backing into his back yard or if it was "hot"  ..... but I didn't ask. We just took our corn and left.
Now we are looking for a green bean truck .... If we don't find one we may ask one of you to ship us some green beans from Houston. 
Did I mention that all the green bean fields have irrigation canals bordering them ... with alligators in them ?

Haven't tried the corn yet.
Marilyn for the Three Travelers